TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Once we arrived at the hotel, Royalton Bavaro, we quickly learned something was going on. We knew that 1 restaurant would be closed for refurbishment but during the holiday it transpired that 2 were closed, the main buffet was reduced in size due to refurbishment but the biggest problem was that the main pool, with the swim up bar, was scheduled to be closed but we were not informed of this in advance. A swim up bar is a big perk of a luxury Caribbean holiday and losing this facility really put a dampener on the holiday. Service in general was poor, very poor. Bar service painfully slow, premium drinks were a bit selective, and it seemed to be only available at 2 of the bars. You know things are bad when the best staff member during the holiday was the man who swept the pool area. Edwardu, hoping I have spelt this correctly, you were the highlight of our vacation. Food was horrendous. Cold, bland, but the biggest problem was that some evenings at the hot plate, the female chef seemed to forget about basic food handling. Handling raw chicken then serving cooked meet without washing hands resulted in food poisoning for my wife for over half of the holiday which meant we became confined to the resort as we couldn't do trips as we needed quick access to the toilet let’s say. No air conditioning in the restaurants, which meant you were sweating whilst eating your meals. Really can't understand this to be honest. The room (19403) was good but cleaning was questionable. Most days the dirty towels were left in the shower cubicle which would imply that the cubicle was not cleaned as often. Mini bar consistently not serviced after we left a tip on the 2nd day. I can only assume the mini bar guy was offended so just boycotted us. We had to call every day for them to return. Also went to reception a few times but they were not interested. Tui reps, God love, them were trying their best. Were 2 on site every day but the level of dissatisfaction meant that once things were going wrong for almost all Tui guests, we had 4 on site dealing with a long queue of very unhappy people. Tui realised things were bad as they were giving out compensation in resort to try and appease the anger that seems to be building. The final day arrived and we were glad to be 'released'. Yes, it may seem like a collection of first-world problems, but this is not what we expected from Tui and not from a Luxury Caribbean holiday but on the final day, no water. Unable to flush the toilet which was still 'busy' due to upset stomachs. We had to bathe in the smaller pool ahead of the flight home and wash with bottled water from the mini bar. At check out, the receptionist asked if we had a good holiday and we said we hadn’t and they replied, that’s too bad. Perhaps a bit lost in translation, but it did upset us a bit. My wife had been on the resort Facebook group, and we knew there were grumbles ahead of us going but we brushed these off as people love to moan but this holiday was horrendous and we were so disappointed and heartbroken with the experience. To add, we are not serial complainers, and we have never complained about a holiday before, but this was bad, really bad. It seemed a cheap versions of The Caribbean and more aligned to 3-star European that 5-star Caribbean. Also felt that the staff favoured serving the Central/Southern American guests over the European/North American guests. If this hotel is a representation of the Dominican Republic and it's hospitality, and of your group of hotels, shame on you.

We’ve stayed at a Royalton Hotels before but this hotel was nowhere near those, or other 4 or 5-star hotel experiences we’ve had previously. Our Hotel Room * We requested a lower ground floor room due to our Autistic son, we know it’s not a guarantee via TUI Assisted Travel prior - but, the hotel put us on the TOP floor - so balcony was out of bounds for us for the whole two weeks! If first floor was unavailable, why not second floor? * Child’s bed not made on arrival from check-in, we asked 4 times, eventually made at 9pm, after child was asleep * Suitcases took 2 hours to arrive at the room from concierge, I had to go down to reception to ask the whereabouts * Our room floor, balcony and bath were dirty on arrival and floor remained dirty throughout our stay (until the manager got involved) * Room service food was cold the two times we ordered, including the evening we arrived so * TV stopped working multiple times, IT came out to fix, then would break again, defaulting to the hotel/PC menu screen - in total TV didn’t work for 5 days out of the 14 * Telephone in the room didn’t work after day 4, handset was “dead” - this was never resolved, so couldn't contact reception or answer their calls * We stayed in Building 11 and the internet failed regularly, almost daily, so we couldn’t use the Royalton App (or telephone) so had to walk to reception with requests (which is quite a bit of a walk) - looked like new routers were being installed on some days * Water went off (or reduced to a trickle) in our room a couple of times throughout our stay, so couldn’t take showers, flush toilet or brush teeth * Many days towels and toilet roll were not replaced and I personally had to track down towels and toilet roll from the cleaners or walk to reception to report * Bedding wasn’t changed for first 7 days, we knew this because there was an “iron burn” on the bottom sheet, I eventually stripped the bed myself and requested it to be changed * Fridge wasn’t always restocked daily with correct selection of drinks, couple of days it was restocked at all * At one point our room wasn’t serviced for 3 days, despite the tag on the door so we had dirty towels, no toilet roll and no clean bedding * The air conditioning unit in the room started making a loud noise when it was set below 21°c or Off, noise was a constant loud banging metal noise which kept us away thru the nights, was fixed after two nights but then returned intermittently effecting 4 nights of sleep Food & Drink Amenities * No spoons in the Gourmet Marche buffet restaurant on the tables, we regularly used wooden spoons - general lack of cutlery, constantly had to ask, but service very slow and you end up asking multiple times to the point your food would be cold * Regular dirty plates stacked up in “clean” sections, most days due to the lack of bowls, people were eating directly off the table or from cardboard boxes in the Gourmet Marche Buffet Restaurant * Oceanside Restaurant for buffet lunch constantly had dirty plates, to the point where one American guest started screaming at the staff in front of the whole room about the poor cleanliness * There are no self service coffee machines at breakfast and coffee service is very slow, some instances didn’t get offered a hot drink or did, but it didn’t arrive whilst we were eating * Twice, the breakfast coffees in the Buffet had milk particles floating on the top, and the milk tasted “off” * Fizzy drinks served from warm bottles around the complex so lost the fizz because they’re not stored in refrigerators * Dessert station on buffet was very limited in comparison to other 5-star resorts we’ve stayed at, they also only have wooden spoons to eat it with * Lack of bowls, to the point where dishes like rice pudding and cereal were served on plates! * Evening drinks from bars regularly served in plastic pool cups or cardboard cups for adults, even when glass was available * Chocolate ran out for 3 days in total, so no chocolate cocktails, pancake toppings and chocolate desserts - which the kids didn’t understand * Breakfast juice station in Gourmet Marche was constantly empty and/or no glasses available * We saw two instances of people loudly arguing with cooks over the quality and undercooked state of the fish and meat in the Oceanside and Gourmet Marche Buffet restaurants, leading to replacements being brought out - there was a clear issue with the food quality and cleanliness seen by many * The standard of both Buffet Restaurants was well below a 5-star standard quality, very bland or over salted in most dishes - something discussed by many guests there * Gourmet Marche Buffet doesn’t have the name tags above all the food dishes, and no allergy information so you are guessing what some of the dishes actually are * Gourmet Marche Buffet seats are small sized foldable deck chairs with a black cover over, they’re uncomfortable to be sat on especially at tables that are all chipped and wobbly * Sports Bar menu has been cut in half vs the App menu and advertised services, and when we went in, the menu had been reduced further to just 3 dishes, and totally removed kids menu * Sports Bar also didn’t show live English Premier League football, they plugged in an Amazon Firestick which buffered and didn’t work even though they advertise as “You’ll never miss a game with Royalton’s Sport’s Event Guarantee”, customers ended up crowded around another customers iPad to watch it The Pools * All slides were out of order on the Lazy River along with 2 of the “waterfalls” and both island sprays too * Lazy River life guard closes it early, some days as early as two hours before 6pm, also not enough rings provided for the people wanting to enter it, people take them to their beds all day * Broken tiles in the Infinity pool, multiple people received slices from these on hands and toes. They are just floating in the bottom on the pools * Pool toilet door locks broken, very dirty floors and broken hand dryers so cannot dry hands before returning to pools, one time there was poo on the seat!! * We saw kids urinating in the bushes around the pool areas * The Royalton Pool was dirty every day, they used chemicals but by lunch the pool had a dirty residue with skin and hair floating on the top of the water * I had my personal beach towel, that I brought from home, stolen from my pool sunbed * Some foot washes at the far pool / exit from the beach don’t work as the buttons are missing and just a spring is left sticking out - people get in the pool to clear off why is why so much sand is in the pools * Inappropriate music played around the pool (with the swim up bar), songs with expletives whilst lots of young children use this pool The Buildings/Grounds * Buildings of the hotel rooms are dated/tired and require renovation * Outside maintenance issues; broken lift buttons and safety bars, broken walls and doors, miss matched painting and rendering, wooden boots broken, pipes broken, switches not working etc * Broken air conditioning units leaking water in multiple places and leaks in the receptions roofs near the coffee shop * Our Building 11 had a flooded/leaking water pipe on the bottom floor * Our Building 11, the decking space was unusable due to the raise and broken wooden blanks on the 2nd floor * There’s active renovations happening too in the lobby area, and the Gourmet Marche buffet restaurant, quite a large section is boarded out with workmen working there for the whole two weeks * Cleaners used water from the indoor fountains to clean the reception area floors * Raised plug sockets in reception, saw multiple people trip on them including two kids from our linked booking * The glass tables outside Kids Club are broken, the top glass surface rocks and isn’t secured down * Basketball court is all ripped up and rims were hanging off the boards, basically wasn’t great for kids to play on and a safety fall risk * Teens Club doesn’t exist, yet it’s advertised and says supervised - this space was used daily by men playing Poker for money * Kids Club has multiple broken toys: pool table doesn’t have proper balls or cues, air hockey (no air!) * Kids Clubs only allow mums (females) to accompany the children, not dads (males). My husband is a registered carer for our Autistic child but because of this rule, the responsibility wasn’t able to be split between us because they wouldn’t allow him in * The mini-golf was good however the clubs missed handles and the putters were hollow with open ends (damaged) Other * Onsite shop is ridiculously over priced, the most expensive shop for basic goods I’ve seen anywhere in the world, in all the years I’ve been travelling, eg, $20 for two packs of Pringles (just avoid it) * Not enough well lit quiet bars/spaces in the evening, all centred around the entertainment stage in the centre, so no real place to relax in the evening, especially with an Autistic child Sickness * Diarrhoea & vomiting bug outbreak whilst we were there, 7 from 8 of our booking were ill for 1-3 days and other guests staying too reported it, saw many people ill in the toilets too, unsure on the cause but I’d imagine down to general cleanliness of the hotel * My husband was the worst effected and seriously sick for the last 6 days of the holiday, room bound for most days and didn’t eat at all on the final day to ensure he didn’t rely too much on requiring toilet access at airport/flight * We presume this is linked to the general poor cleanliness issues around the hotel pools, toilets and buffet restaurants (shared spaces) * We were unable to do any day trips due to the illness within the group too * Other guests were also ill during our stay in August Observations * This is an All Inclusive purchase from England but this hotel was very “tip” oriented which goes against “all inclusive”, meaning British guests often put secondary to American guests that tipped heavily * There’s nowhere to get ice lollies or ice creams near the pools or beach area, which is poor, ice cream is available at the coffee shop but you have to walk a distance to the lobby area (about 0.4 mile) - the bars should have coolers with ice lollies available for the kids around the pools Positives * Hotel grounds are beautiful and well maintained * Evening entertainment is great * Gym is a great * Coffee shop is excellent * Plenty of sunbeds available all day, no morning scrap for bed spaces which you see at other hotels * TUI reps were amazing! (Cely and Edison) * A la Carte restaurants are great too, emphasising big gap between them and the Buffet * Unlimited à la carte is great too, which means to can reduce buffet trips Overall, things were that bad that on Thursday 20th August I had a meeting with the hotel manager, Marcos Perez, to run through all the issues, and he gave me his WhatsApp contact whilst he took a look through some issues, which had also been raised by other guests too, so most of this wasn’t unique to our experience. The cleanliness at this hotel was some of the worst I’ve ever experienced, the Royalton pool was disgusting, it was full of hair, skin and yellow film over the top of the water, but the cleanliness issues were very noticeable in the dirty communal toilets - with hand dryers and paper talks either not working or empty so you are unable to dry your hands, dry toilet seats, floor, walls and sinks too, then there’s the dirty plates and cutlery in the buffet restaurants , chefs handling raw meat and salad items with with the same gloves, raw meat left outside unattended with files on it, honestly a real eye opener and not a 5 star service. Our room was dirty when we arrived, bath was filthy, floors un-mopped, balcony floor dirty and bedding had stains on it.? This hotel added daily inconveniences, was missing many details and fell well below the 5-star rating and the descriptions on the website(s) before booking, and we certainly didn’t get anywhere the £5,650 value of this two-week holiday. Premium price for a poor service, sickness and a lack of sleep. The staff told us it’s going to close soon for 5 months to complete renovations, which makes a lot of sense. We wanted to leave early and went through the motions over the last 4 days due to being worn down and frustrated by all the issues and the diarrhoea & vomiting bug that was going through hotel guests. On the face of it, this hotel looks the part but the service, details and touches are way short of 5-star. I've held off posting this review, but this is currently going through ABTA as an official complaint now as the hotel didn't resolve with TUI.

The hotel is nice. They staff were mostly ok. However, they were too forceful in trying to get you to attend their time-share meeting. Literally, calling my room at 8:00am adter i got in almost at 1:00am and waiting at my room door to walk us to this 2 hour presentation. Good thing I take long to get ready. So I missed it on my first day there . Then every 5 minutes someone is asking if "someone is taking care you" . It was too much and very off putting. Lastly the food is HORRIBLE!!!!!!! NO MEALS WERE GOOD. Pancakes were hard, I literally got moldy cheese cake at the café Food was really the absolute worst Room was ok. No wash cloth on my first night. The bathtub leaked the entire stay . The shower gel was never replenished. Overall, I wouldn't stay here again or recommend.

Roy was the best butler ever he made the stay at the Royalton very easy and enjoyable I had the best time of my life he decorated my room for my birthday ?? I was so excited and loved it so much this was the best vacation ??

My stay was far more than I expected.. my butler Roy was amazing and very attentive. I will be back.My review